Furnace.



a.such as will enable others skilled in the art to v f A tion of the apparatus, a part being shown in'y 40 l .represents a "'side'` elevation thereof with.' a

the drawing.

considered as including 4a chamber, compris- `50 To all whom, t may concern f In' thedrawing, vwherein is shown' one of copper or other material to be melted, and a,

UNITED sfr-Aras PATENT- oFmcE.

havn) WESLEY Imam, or NEW Yonx, N. Y., n u o oMrANY, or NEW Yonx, N. Y., al oonronarroiror METALLURGICAL RESEARCH ARIZONA. i

WESLEY BLAIR, a citizenof theUnited States,'residing at 386 Manhattan avem1e,'New Yorkcity, m the county of New York and-State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in F lirnaces, of which the fol lowing is a full, clear, and exact. description,

Be it known that I, Davm which it appeitains to make and use the same..

This invention relates to furnaces and. with respect to its more specific features, to a furnace for melting and' refining metals.

One of the objectsof the invention is to' provide a simple, practical and efficient ap'- paratus of the type described from which a continuousdischarge of refined product may be obtained. v Another object is to provide a cheap apparatus bf .the type described, which shall resist deterioration to a marked extent. Another 'object is to provide an' apparatus of the type described, which shall be capable of rapid Work-and able to handle -a large. quantity of material with a Small expendlture of labor. v Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed but hereinafter.

The -invntiotn accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts .whichwill be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope ofthe, application of which will be indicated in the fol.- lowing claims.. i

the various possible embodiments'of the in- .vention, Figure 1 represents a fronteleva-- fsection on the line X-X of Fig; 2. Fig. 2 represents a sectional plan view thereof, taken on' the line Y-,-Y of F ig. l; and Fig. 3

.part broken away. f .n

Similar-reference charactersnrefer to s1m1 larparts throughout the various views-of1 Grenerallyl speaking, the apparatus may be ing'a 'compartmentI adapted to hold solid" Specification of Letters Patent.

Application ile November 24, 1911. Serial No. 662,095.

right furnace 'l' which comprises at the top 2 through which thecopper may be Vconveniently charged, andi a chamber 3 in whichl is situated afluid fuel the furnace is substanj .ci-oss'fsection, an'c`l`lthe combustion chamber, which'is located near' .burner 4. As shown, tially rectangular in the bottom thereof and 'and in frontgof the front wall of the furnace, .is P lQVded lWith, walls.

away` from the' furnace and surround at their outer 'extremity an. opening 6 throu h which the Huid fuel A bottom or floor of the furnace, denoted by 7, is sloped toward the fluid uel'burner, as more clearly shown in Fig. 3. The floor 8 of the combustion chamber adjoins an'dis preferably "substantially a' continuation of the floor 7 of the furnace. ."Th'e floor ofthe combustion chambgrslopes in .substantially the same directionas the bottom of the furnace and is provided with azslopili'g passage-'or gutter 9 which passes from' one side -of the 'combustion chamber transversely to the other side in a direction substantially perpendicular toiheA longitudinal a'Xis of 'the Huid fuel burner, whereit emerges and joins v atubeor conduit 10 v'which leads to an inlet in a .horizontal refining furnace or chamber 11. v

Y 'As shown in Fig. 2, the refining chamber is generally rectangular in `form and is` long, lowand narrow. It is 'provided with 11p- .right side wal 1s 12, an arched top right' -end walls 14 and '15, and a ASSIGNOB, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0

runivacn.

, '-"Patented May13,1913.

receptacle in the lower partof the'ch'amber to re'ceiveand h'old a pool of melted material, heating 'means for heating the compartment, lheating means for heating the receptacle for lthe melted material, anda means to substantially prevent the heating medium sup-A plied to the compartment containing. the solid material from contaminating the pool of copper in the other' receptacle.'

In .the drawing is shown vertical, up-

an opening projects .laterally 5 which;v converge burner 4 projects., e

13 i lupbfittom having the form of an 4inverted 'arch 16. The inverted larch structure is made u .preferably of blocks of refractory materlal and thearch structure itself terminates at either lend against the vside Walls ofthe furnaoef It will be noted in connection `with this .strucl combusti on ture that there is substantially no opportunity for the metal contained in the furnace to force the blocks of the arch out of place, for if any metal descends between the blocks and collects thereunder, the pressure of the, metal on the under side will be lresisted by the inverted arch structure of the blocks. It will hence" be seen that there is substantially no chance to contaminate the copper in the refining furnace by means of dislodged pieces of the lining of the bottom and furthermore the life of the lining will thus be increased. The upright front wall isprovided with a combustion chamber 15 17, projecting laterally in front of the front Wall, whose Walls converge as shown to form an opening 18 through which projects a fluid fuel burner 19. As shown in Fig. l, the refinin chamber 11 is provided in its arched top wal with aflue 20 which leads therefrom to the upright furnace 1,4and projects through the wall thereof to the interior at a point preferably above the combustion chamber 3. The products of combustion i from the burner 4 will generally pass upward through the furnace 1 and will emerge at the topthereof. .The gases from the burner 19 will also pass out through the furnace 1 and, lunder ordinary conditions, these two heating mediums will not' join until they meet in the furnace 1. In this way the prodructs of combustion of the two furnaces will not contaminate the. roduct of either. The side wall 12 is provided utith a. tap Q1, at a oint about midway between the front. and rear walls, through which the copper in the refining furnace may be tapped into suitable molds or other apparatus. In order that the metal may bedirected toward this 40 tap, the inverted arched bottom of the @furnace is sloped downwardly from the front end wall and rear end wall, respectively, to

aA line in a plane passing through the tapperpendicularly to the side walls. -The slope from the front end wall is designated 22 (see Fig. 3) and the slope from the rear end wall is designated 23. Along the above-mentioned' line, which forms the juncture of these -two surfaces, and transversely of the furnace, another sloped portion 24 is provided for the furnace bottom from a point opposite and in'the rear of the tap toward the tap (see Fig.- 1-). The refining rchamber 11 is provided. with a side door 25 throu h i5-which instruments may befintroduced ory conducting the process carried on in the furnace, A panel 26 may be provided through which an operator may enter` for.. repairs or l -other purposes. x j In carrying', out the process of treating cop er,- the upright furnace 1 is first thor- ,oug ily dried and heated to a suitable temperature, preferablyby means of the fluid fuel burner projecting into the combust'on chamber 3. The' refining furnace. is aso 'ing the processes 'of reduction.

similarly dried and heated. Cathode cop'- per plates or copper plates of the kind. desircdare chargedinto the upright fur-nnen through the charging opening 2 at the top thereof and melting ofthe copper is begun(- o by causing' the llame of the fluld -fuel burner:

4 to impinge upon the lower cathode plates. The fluid fuel burner 4 is preferably supplied with a hydrocarbon oil and is prefer' ably so regulated that the flame of the fluid` n fuel produces an oxidizing atmosphere within the combustion chamber. The copper is heated and melted in this oxidizin atmosphere by means of the highly heated products of combustion ofthe fuel supplied to the burner` flows down the sloping bot tom wall T of the furnace, and is remove in a path toward the fluid fuel burner along the floor 8, until it reaches the gutter 9. It passes through this gutter to the tube'10 and thenceI to the refining chamber-'11, passing th'ereinto through the orifice provided therefor. .lt is to be noted in connection with this melting of the copper that a movement of the plates above the point of melting. or 'melting zone, occurs and an automatic feed of the copper into thisl zone is thereby secured by gravity. The flame of the burner may be regulated to produce a comparatively high temperaturewith little '95 danger of deteriorating the innerwalls of the-furnace, for thecopper melts and isremoved sufficiently rapidly from the oombilstion chamber to a point exterlor thereof to provide little chance for radiation of the heat absorbed thereby to the walls of the uprght furnace, with consequent eating away nf thesev walls.

The life and efficiency of the furnace is consequently increased by 'ust so much. The meltedcopper delivered to the refining chamber will hence. ordinarily contain an amount of 'slightly oxidized cop. per, and the processwhich isrcarried on m the refiningchamber is intended to free of copper 'from such` oxids and -to rendered |10 pure. The melted co pdr is removed from the oxidizing'atmosp ere i-n the furnace l and enteringthe refining chamber'is heated and maintained in its'- melted state lby means of the fluid fuel burner 19, which, is also preferably provided with h fue, and which 1s so regulated t at it maintains a sufficiently high' temperature in the retin ing chamber to secure the desired maintenance of the melted state of the copper durj oling Iand tapping referred to below. T le co' per, having been received in the refining c amber. is subjected to the influence of a reducing medium, which is preferably carbon spread' over or otherwise intimately commingled therewith, whose action is sup mented by subjecting the copper to a p ilex process, by vmeans of which and the add carbon the oxid of the copper or other im- 130 [ty-'is decomposed, oxygen, or other ini-- mty isliberated .and passes. olf from the oo liegend' substantially-pure lcopper is ob-4 'It isto' be understood that any suit# ible `reducing medium might be` employed.

It has been found in .practice that;L byl either introducing. oxygen into the copper 'in le 'nlelting furnace or yin. some mannerl in'- v,Presence of Oxygen ndie .copper Y ,the lz'liinelting, -ameans for vcontrolling the of ,refining in the reiininglpfurnace Foi' example,- if. the copper in the furnace tslmuld become overpoled, in' order to remove an exces'sof carboni therel', from the-stream of .oxidiaed copper A1s continued-from' the melting. furnace into the Arclin'ii'lgurnace and the polingoperation or relluctio is suspended .until the-feifcess of carbon .is removed. Hence, the flame of the n burner in the melting furnace is preferably so" controlled that it'is an oxidizing' flame. The necessary carbon and the length of the 'process will generally be comparatively small.- After the copper has been a treated inthe refining furnace, it is tapmd out and casting or other processes are carriedon. f

The heat 'which is supplied` to the melted inthe refining chamber is notihigh 3.- lin temperature, and it `has 4been found in notice, due partly to, this fact, that the lining'of the refining furnace will last for a, long period Iwithout renewal. Under these conditions the product which is tapped from n the furnace Vafter intermixture with carbon .and after polingis a substantially 'pure copr and contains practically no slag. This isanadvantageous feature when compared with 'that of providing the bottom of the a furnace with a layer of reractorymaterial,

Iauch 'as sand. L' v Thefurnac'e of the present invention may heA operated without shutting down forv rcpairs or alterations for a comparatively long time, due partly to the before-mentioned, heating conditions, and again to the form of the furnace bottom,vvhich, as mentioned above, consists of blocks of refractoryV material placed toform an inverted arch and 5. so positioned with respect to the side walls that 'there is little chance for port-ionsof it to become' detached and be commingled with the copper. A Y

In practice all the steps of the process, including melting, removing'the copper, re- Iiningwtapping, etc., which have been described in detail above, are preferably conducted continuously. An .economy in heat and hencel in fuel is .eected by means of the n ue 20, through ,which the gases which have traversed the refining' chamber pass and are conducted into cortactA with Vthe copper eithodes at a point above the zone of' melting, thus. providing a' preheating of these same time, a lluefor'4 the discharge'` of the lproducts .of combustion y oftheburner 19. It is -tobe understood that the furnace here? in described may be used'with highlyelli-fu cient and practical results for the treat-ment" of suitable metals other than copper. It thus be seen that a simple apparatus is provided wherein the objects enumerated above,

.among others, are obtained.- ff: l

many changes' could bel made lin' the above construction and many apparently Widely different embodiments of-this inveni tion could be made' vvithout departing'from the' scope thereof, itis intended that`all matter-contained-in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in;I a. limiting sense. It is'also to be understood that the language used in the following .claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of, the 'inventionherein the `invention, which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetvveen.'4

'Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to'secure by Letters .Patent is:

l.v In anapparatus of thecharacter de'- scribed,.in combination, a chamber com# prisin'g a receptacle for molten copper and a receptacle forsolid copper, means adapted to supply a heatingmedium to bothof said \receptacles, and means to substantially pre-` vent. the heating medium of One of said receptacles from contaminating the atmos# lphere 'of the otherreceptacle.

2. Inan apparatus ofthe character described, in combination, a chamber comprising a receptacle to provide a pool of molten copper and a' receptacle for solid copper, means'adapted to, supply a heating medium to both of said receptacles, and means to substantially prevent th'e heating medium supplied to the receptacle containing' the' solid copper from contaminating the pool .of doppen or the a receptacle.

3. In' an apparatus of the character de: scribed, a vertical rectangular furnace com prising a combustion chamber projecting' laterally vin front thereof and a burner projecting into said combustion chamber, said furnace being provided with a bottom sloping toward lsaid burner, said combustion `chamber having converging Walls surround-v ing an opening adapted to receive said' burnerY and having a door sloping in substantially the same'4 direction as the bottom of saidfurnace,` and a gutter extending transversely. with respect to the longitudiynal axis'of' said burner from side to side oi said combustion chamber.

.-In an apparatus of the character described, in combination, along, low marrow;

5 copper rathodes and also securing at the.

horizontal furnace comprising a combustion described and all .statements of the scope of i tmosphere lin the other chamber projecting laterally in front of In testimony whereof I aX my signathe frontbwall thereof, ai? iilt for moten ture, in the presence of two Witnesses. metah a ottom eomposec o locks lait to form `an inverted arch', said bottom sloping 1 DAVID WESLEY BLAIR 5 from either end toward a tap in a side Wall Witnesses:

of said furnace, and a Huid 'fuel burner pro- J. W. ANDERSON, A jecting .through said combustion chamber. L.A. WATSON. 

